One of the most common questions we hear from people making coffee at home is: "Why doesn't my coffee taste as good as the cafe?" It's easy to assume the problem is your grinder, recipe or espresso machine. But more often than not, the biggest difference comes down to the coffee itself. The quality of your beans, when they were roasted and how you've stored them will have a bigger impact on flavour than almost any tweak you can make to your machine.
Fresh coffee is important. But the freshest coffee isn't always the best.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions in coffee. When coffee is roasted, it traps carbon dioxide inside the beans. Over the following days, that gas slowly escapes through a process called degassing (yes, unfortunately this is a real word). If you brew coffee immediately after roasting, that excess gas can interfere with extraction, making espresso taste sharp, sour or uneven. Give the coffee a little time to settle, however, and those flavours become sweeter, more balanced and easier to extract. Wait too long, though, and the opposite starts to happen. The coffee gradually loses its sweetness, aroma and complexity as it becomes stale. Like most things in coffee, it's all about finding the sweet spot.
So when should you drink your coffee?
As a general guide for all of our coffees:
| Time from roast | What to expect |
| 7 to 14 days | Coffee is settling and developing flavour |
| 14 to 30 days | The sweet spot for most coffees. Balanced, sweet and expressive |
| 30+ days | Flavours begin to soften with less sweetness, aroma and complexity |
That doesn't mean your coffee suddenly expires after 30 days. It'll still make a perfectly enjoyable cup. You may simply notice it has a little less character than it did a few weeks earlier.
What this means when ordering coffee online
One question we often get is: "Should I wait until I've completely run out before ordering more?" Actually, no. Because coffee tastes best after it's had a little time to rest, ordering before you finish your current bag usually gives you the best results. By the time your order is roasted, packed, shipped and arrives at your door, it'll often be approaching that ideal drinking window. As a rule of thumb, try to order your next bag when you've got around a week's worth of coffee left. That gives plenty of time for delivery without leaving you coffee-less, and your new bag will be nicely rested by the time you open it.
Store it well
Once you've opened your bag, good storage helps preserve all that hard-earned flavour.
Coffee has four main enemies:
• Air
• Heat
• Moisture
• Light
Keep your coffee in an airtight container in a cool, dry cupboard and avoid storing it in the fridge, despite what your mum, neighbour or that bloke on Facebook might tell you. If you're buying whole beans, keep them whole until you're ready to grind. Grinding fresh is one of the easiest ways to improve the quality of your coffee at home.
How much coffee should you buy?
Buying the right amount helps ensure you're always drinking coffee at its best.
As a rough guide:
• 250g makes around 14 coffees
• 1kg makes around 55 coffees
Aim to buy an amount you'll comfortably use within two to three weeks of opening. If you don't get through coffee that quickly, buying smaller bags more often will usually deliver better flavour than keeping one large bag around for months. And if you’re using an espresso machine, remember to factor in a little extra coffee for dialling in. Every home barista sacrifices a few shots along the way.
So remember, making great coffee starts well before you press the brew button. Choosing freshly roasted coffee is important, but giving it time to rest, storing it properly and ordering before you run out are just as important. Get those fundamentals right, and your home espresso machine can do what it does best: make consistently delicious coffee, cup after cup.
Put the kettle on.
